Ossian Collection > Gaelic bards

88 MODERN GAELIC BARDS.
preacher of tlie Church of Scotland ; l)ut there were
technical difficulties in the way of meeting this wish, and
so the matter dropt. Nor was the modest poet himself
at all disconcerted at this issue to the well-meant
kindness of his friends.
Buchanan was in Edinburgh in 1766, superintending
the printing of the Gaelic New Testament. While in
that city he took the opportunity offered him of increas-
ing his knowledge and cultivating his mind, by attending
the classes for Natural Philosophy, Anatomy, and
Astronomy, at the University.
In 1768 he died of fever, in the fifty-second year of his
age. In May of that year he returned home from a long
journey, to find his fapiily suffering from this disorder,
which soon seized upon himself. All his children, his two
servants, and himself, were ill at the same time. His
wife then about to be confined, could get no one to assist
her in attending on them ; so great was the dread of
infection entertained by their neighbours. In his de-
lirium Buchanan frequently sang psalms, and spoke of
the Lamb in the midst of the throne. On the second of
June he died.
In Beid's " Bibliotheca Scoto-Celtica," it is asserted,
that the poet's whole family, six in number, M'-as carried
off by the same fever, and at the same time as their father.
But this is a mistake. Buchanan left two sons and two
daughters behind him — one of the latter was alive
in 1836.
In- person Buchanan was considerably above the middle
size, and of a dark complexion. His face is said to have
been very expressive of kindness and benevolence, es-
pecially on a near view. Among his familiar acquaintance
he was cheerful and sociable ; his company being much
sought after on account of his stock of pleasant anecdotes,
and generally intelligent conversation. His usual dress was
a blue bonnet and a black suit, over which he often wore